Blind spot detection systems for motor vehicles that can alert a driver that another motor vehicle is within his or her blind spot are known. Such blind spot detection systems typically provide a visual signal, e.g. signal lights on left and right rear view minors, to a driver of the motor vehicle when the driver activates a left or right turn signal and an object is detected within a blind spot on the left hand side or right hand side, respectively, of the vehicle.
In order to develop improved blind spot detection systems for motor vehicles, motor vehicle manufacturers typically test the blind spot detection system by driving the vehicle through traffic and noting when the blind spot detection system accurately detects a motor vehicle within a given blind spot, when a false detection occurs and when a missed detection occurs. In order for such testing to be performed, a driver typically drives the vehicle through various traffic patterns while one or two additional individuals seated in the motor vehicle attempt to determine and keep note of accurate and false blind spot detections.
Heretofore testing systems have relied on the one or two additional individuals to observe when: (1) a blind spot indicator light is activated and whether or not a motor vehicle is actually within a blind spot; and (2) a motor vehicle is within a blind spot and a blind spot indicator light fails to be activated.
When one individual is attempting to keep track of the accurate and false blind spot detections, the individual must continually look back and forth between left hand side and right hand side visual blind spot detection signals and also look to see if a motor vehicle is actually within a given blind spot as predicted by the visual alert. And if two individuals are attempting to determine accurate and false blind spot detections, each individual must still look between a given visual alert and whether or not a vehicle is present within the respective blind spot of the motor vehicle. Such procedures can lead to errors in detecting whether or not accurate and/or false blind spot detections have occurred. Therefore, an improved apparatus and/or process for testing a blind spot detection system for a motor vehicle would be desirable.